August 2019 Sunnyvale Electronics Swap finds

ray_parkhurst · Post by **ray_parkhurst** » Sat Aug 10, 2019 4:34 pm

Today was the Sunnyvale Electronics Swap at Fry's parking lot. I got there ~6:15AM, but didn't find any gems on the first pass. On 2nd pass a surplus dealer was unloading pallets of stuff, and when I asked if he had any microscope or optical surplus he said there was lots in the truck, so I ended up making multiple passes around the whole swap just to see his stuff as it was unloaded. Unfortunately he was exaggerating, though I did end up with a nice Edmund XZ stage from him.

On my next pass through, I picked up some tools and a few misc items. On fourth pass another surplus vendor had unloaded a bunch of microscopes, and I picked up a nice Optiphot. It was a bit dirty, and the fine focus was broken, but it had 4 decent looking objectives: BD Plan 10x; BD Plan 20x ELWD; BD Plan 40x EWLD; and BD Plan 60x. On my final pass I picked up a B&L SZ4 on a KT stand, some miscellaneous ThorLabs items that I had missed on the previous passes, and a bunch of new empty shipping boxes. Overall an excellent day!

I had been looking for a 20x ELWD for a while, and have lost bidding on multiple eBay lots, so that objective was a pleasant surprise. The 40x ELWD was also a big surprise, and I know little about it. I'll need to do some reasearch on it. The 10x, 20x, and 40x all look to be in great shape. The 60x not so much, but luckily I don't really care about it...

Now to figure out what to do with the Optiphot itself. Keep an eye out on the Equipment Exchange...

I'll try to publish some results for the 20x and 40x ELWD objectives soon as I can.

Next month is the last Swap of the year, then 6 months waiting for March 2020.

Scarodactyl · Post by **Scarodactyl** » Sat Aug 10, 2019 7:43 pm

Congrats! You make me so jealous with these posts and I hope they never stop.

Alan Wood · Post by **Alan Wood** » Sun Aug 11, 2019 4:51 am

Please does anyone know of events like this in the UK?

I tried Google, but only found events in the USA and Canada.

Alan Wood

grgh · Post by **grgh** » Sun Aug 11, 2019 3:15 pm

Alan

not to take away from posting but.

Saturday 19th October 2019 – 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. – St Albans
Microscopium – The Microscopists’ Fair
St Stephen’s Church Hall, 14 Watling Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 2PX.

There are various other meets around UK from postal microscopy club and of course Quekett.

Alan Wood · Post by **Alan Wood** » Mon Aug 12, 2019 3:00 am

Thank you, grgh

I know about most microscope meetings in the UK, because I am the webmaster for the Quekett and I maintain the programme listing:

http://www.quekett.org/about/programme

I get to lots of meetings in the south, and some as far north as Penkridge. I am the man with the Canon DSLR with a flash on top, taking photos of everything for the meeting reports.

I was hoping to find out about electronics or amateur radio sales events, where there might be something interesting on offer.

Alan Wood

ray_parkhurst · Post by **ray_parkhurst** » Mon Aug 12, 2019 6:16 am

My wife and I may take a road trip to LA end of the month, and if so I want to check out the El Segundo electronics swap. It is supposedly 3x the size of Sunnyvale, and it goes all year. Perhaps that's how I can keep from jonesing too much during the Sunnyvale off months.

BTW I checked out the Optiphot focus block and indeed the fine focus is working! I just couldn't see it moving before. When I adjust the coarse focus all the way to the bottom, then turn the fine focus even farther toward bottom, the coarse focus turns backward to compensate.

houstontx · Post by **houstontx** » Fri Aug 16, 2019 11:36 am

Good to know, I will be moving to el segundo area next month...to clarify this is the W6TRW Swap Meet?

houstontx · Post by **houstontx** » Fri Aug 16, 2019 11:37 am

BTW I have a full DIC kit with objectives for optiphot. Slider/Condenser. If interested PM me.

ray_parkhurst · Post by **ray_parkhurst** » Fri Aug 16, 2019 11:37 am

houstontx wrote:Good to know, I will be moving to el segundo area next month...to clarify this is the W6TRW Swap Meet?

Yes, I think that's the one.